A MUM who has suffered 15 miscarriages says she lives in “constant agony” following years of misdiagnosis for endometriosis.
Kelly Stuckey, who lives in Patcham, first started experiencing pain in her abdomen as a teenager but was frequently dismissed by doctors who told her it was just her period.
In April, the 38-year-old was rushed to hospital after the pain “became too much to bear” and doctors discovered that a 4cm cyst on one of her ovaries had ruptured.
Kelly was advised by doctors she would need keyhole surgery to investigate the source of the pain, but NHS waiting lists meant she would have to wait “months” for the procedure.
Together with her husband Justin, Kelly took out a loan of £7,000 to have the surgery privately at the Montefiore Hospital in Hove.
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The surgery revealed Kelly had endometriosis, where cells that normally line the womb grow in other places, fibroids, non-cancerous tumours that can grow in or around the womb, and adenomyosis – where the tissue that normally lines the womb starts to grow within the muscular womb wall.
The mother-of-two has been told she needs to have a hysterectomy - a surgical procedure to remove the womb – to stop the pain she is experiencing.
However, Kelly says she could be waiting up to 18 months for treatment through the NHS.
Kelly said: “I’ve been pushed from pillar to post all these years by doctors saying, ‘everyone has periods, and they can be bad’, knowing that something could be wrong.
“Over the years as it’s got worse, it now takes over my whole entire life to the point where just walking to pick the kids up from school is a nightmare and that’s all I can do for the whole day.
“This isn’t just periods. This is every day of my life not being able to get out of bed, not being able to sleep at night because every time I lay down the pain is so bad and not being able to go to the toilet without being in pain.”
Kelly has now set up a GoFundMe to raise £15,000 for the procedure to be done privately.
She says it is not just the physically pain that has taken its toll, but the “emotional trauma” caused by having 15 miscarriages has also been difficult to deal with.
The couple have also been forced to give up fostering children, which they have done for the last four years, because of Kelly’s condition.
She said: “I’ve spoken to so many women who had told me they’ve been in situations where they’ve had to wait for over ten years to get a diagnosis.
“It just isn’t taken seriously enough. It is so debilitating, and it affects so many women’s lives. Until you’re in that situation, you have no idea how painful it is.”
Despite her pain, Kelly says she feels “incredibly lucky” to have had one successful pregnancy in 2007 and to have given birth to her son, Olivier.
Kelly and her husband Justin also have a son called Christopher, six, who the pair adopted.
To donate to Kelly’s fundraiser, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-kelly-to-get-her-life-back
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